1. Field of the Invention
This invention broadly relates to an article of manufacture, referred to herein as a "fixture," useful for the display of goods. The invention further relates to a fixture for the display of clothing, and especially for the display of the portion of clothing, such as shirts, having designs, such as logos, symbols, slogans, messages and other marks, imprinted on the portion of the clothing to be displayed. This invention still further relates to a fixture for the simultaneous display of a number of T-shirts having a different design imprinted on each T-shirt, whereby a person desiring to acquire a T-shirt having a design imprinted thereon may conveniently view and compare the available designs in order to enhance and ease the selection of a T-shirt bearing a desired design.
2. Related Art and Problems Solved
A major problem which confronts a vendor of goods, particularly in a retail sales venue, involves the acquisition of sufficient and adequate space to display the goods for sale. The space, to be both sufficient and adequate, is preferably readily visually and tactilely accessible by potential buyers while not requiring the immediate attention of sales personnel and not occupying an excessive amount of limited floor area. In addition, such a sufficient and adequate space should maximize the vertical surface area available for display of goods while minimizing the occupation of floor area. The geometry of the display space should, preferably, enable the vendor of the goods to easily and rapidly place goods on and remove goods from the space without resort to the use of any fastening devices extraneous to the fixture itself.
Some retail venues rely on the planar areas of vertical walls for displaying goods. This display tactic does afford excellent visual, but not convenient tactile, access to the goods, and does not occupy valuable floor area. However, the quantity of vertical wall area available for the display of goods which is associated with any floor area is inherently limited, and, accordingly, commands a premium for its use. As a result, such area is usually reserved for the display of goods which command high retail prices.
Retail outlets also rely on floor-supported tables and cabinets to visually and tactilely display, as well as to store, goods. Such display fixtures can require a floor area equal to the display area and, thus, excessively occupy valuable floor space and require the close attention of retail sales personnel to supervise the handling of goods and to maintain a pleasing presentation of the display itself.
Retail outlets also employ racks from which clothing is suspended on hangers, usually in closely packed arrays. Such racks permit tactile access to the goods by a customer, but visual access to the goods is limited by the very fact that the goods are closely packed. Accordingly, for a buyer to select a good, such as a T-shirt, having a desirable design imprinted thereon, the buyer must remove each good from the rack for inspection in order to compare one design with another. This process can cause the goods to be improperly replaced in the rack and requires the close attention of sales personnel to maintain a pleasing and orderly display.
Other display space can involve the use of mannequins. While a mannequin does provide excellent visual and tactile opportunities for buyers, a mannequin, as a means of displaying a number of different goods, is hampered by the obvious inability to simultaneously display more than a single good of a given type. In short, a mannequin can only display one T-shirt at a time. Furthermore, since a mannequin occupies valuable floor area it becomes an inefficient vehicle for the display of a wide variety of goods whose principle distinctions reside in the design imprinted on the goods.
It is thus an object of this invention to provide a goods display fixture which features simultaneous visual access to a multiplicity of goods, such as T-shirts, having differing designs, whereby the planar area provided by the fixture for the display of the goods can be selected to be greater than the horizontal floor area actually occupied by the fixture. For the purposes of this disclosure and the appended claims, the ratio of the display area provided by the fixture to the horizontal floor area occupied by the fixture is referred to as the display efficiency.
It is another object of this invention to provide a method of and a fixture for securing and maintaining goods in the fixture without the need of fastening devices of any sort which are extraneous to the fixture itself.